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OSLO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Norway will offer oil firms
exploration blocks in nine frontier areas, including eight
regions of the Arctic Barents Sea and one in the Norwegian Sea,
the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Petroleum
Directorate (NPD) said on Thursday.
The government offered 136 blocks, in line with a
preliminary indication made in June, including 125 in the
Barents Sea, in what amounts to a major expansion of oil
exploration in the Arctic.
"New discoveries are necessary to ensure continued activity,
ripple effects, employment and governmental revenues throughout
the country," Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said in
a statement.
Environmental groups have said Norway's drive to find more
Arctic oil and gas contradicts the country's international
commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).
The Norwegian Supreme Court is due to rule in the coming
weeks or months on the legality of an earlier licensing round in
the Arctic.
Norway is western Europe's top oil and gas producer with
daily output of some 4 million barrels of oil equivalent.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)
